[captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪ sharyl: hello. i'm sharyl attkisson. welcome to "full measure." in the past six months, more than 23,000 kids under 18 have illegally walked across the mexico border into the u.s. and turned themselves in to customs and border protection. it's the second surge in recent years of unaccompanied minors. many are fleeing desperate, even life-threatening, circumstances in central america. once here, they're transferred to the care of health and human services. they receive help for medical needs, mental health, education, recreation, and legal and

religious needs at more than 100 shelters in 12 states -- while case workers look for adult "sponsors" to take them. but there's a terrible untold story. it's what's happening to thousands of the youths once they begin their new life. instead of the american dream, theirs are broken dreams. commissioner kerlikowske: when i first took office in march of 2014, i was down in texas within a week, and that was the summer that we had well over 60,000 young people turn themselves in, mostly in mcallen, texas. sharyl: border patrol commissioner gil kerlikowske. were you shocked to see it climb to those levels? commissioner kerlikowske: to go into a border patrol station and see kids sleeping in every possible corner on concrete without the resources of food services, health care, etc., and to see those border patrol agents trying to feed those kids, and bringing clothes home from their own kids to give to them was pretty amazing.

sharyl: they came -- and are still coming -- from mexico, el salvador, guatemala, and honduras. rep. cuellar: you have unaccompanied kids fleeing very dangerous areas, like honduras and other places, because of the drug violence, and the very highest murder rates in the world. and they're trying to flee that violence. sharyl: thousands walk across the mexican border with no parent or legal guardian, right into congressman henry cuellar's home district in laredo, texas. he says the feds tried to keep the staggering extent of the problem under wraps. can you tell me how you learned about that and what the influx has been? rep. cuellar: actually, i got provided some photos by one of my friends that works on the border. and we provided those photos, and that basically broke the story. homeland doesn't tell local communities what's happening. sharyl: since 2011, more than

125,000 unaccompanied minors from central america have been allowed to illegally cross into the u.s. but if there's one thing more startling than the number, it's the hard truth about where some of them are going. now they've learned some of them have gone into the hands of abusers and criminals? rep. cuellar: exactly. sharyl: the disturbing information was first exposed when unidentified whistleblowers contacted senator chuck grassley. one whistleblower apparently told your office, out of a sample of 29,000 adults allowed to take these children, 3,400 had known criminal histories, that's about 1 in 8. aren't the sponsors supposed to undergo background checks? sen. grassley: they are and they aren't doing it. they're telling us they don't have time. well, it's the government's responsibility to be responsible for the safety of these people, and you wouldn't tolerate it in any other environment, you surely shouldn't tolerate it even for undocumented workers. sharyl: in late 2014,

example of what can go wrong. eight illegal immigrant boys and two adults were being forced to live in dirty, unsafe trailers and work 12-hour days at an egg farm in marion, ohio. arthur carp was a neighbor. arthur: you would not live in 'em, i guarantee ya. holes in the wall, holes in the floor, and just filthy -- and work 12-hour days at an egg roaches. filthy. sharyl: it turns out this illegal immigrant from guatemala was part of a human trafficking network preying on the illegal children. the government had released the youths to her after she falsely claimed to be a family friend. she took their paychecks and sent the money to co-conspirators. in all, six plead guilty in the case, including five foreigners -- four of them illegal immigrants. arthur: these kids were terrified, they had them lined up against the trailer when they raided, i felt sorry for them, because they were crying. sharyl: the egg farm managers weren't charged. they said they had n

trafficking people. health and human services, hhs, has handed illegal immigrant children over to convicted felons in the u.s., according to a source with access to department of homeland security information -- assault, sexual offense against a child, even homicide. sen. claire mccaskill: i find the situation in front of us today unacceptable and i am disgusted and angry. sharyl: at a hearing earlier this year, claire mccaskill and other senators were outraged by the marion, ohio egg farm case and other examples they uncovered. a child from guatemala fleeing sexual abuse was forced to work as a cashier in the u.s. and pay her guardian $1600 a month. a 16-year-old was released to someone in the u.s. who claimed to be her cousin, but turned out to be no relation and forced her into sex. a child from el salvador was released to an adult in the u.s. who had abused him before and continued the abuse, while forcing him to w

janitor. senator rob portman. sen. rob portman: it's intolerable that human trafficking, really modern day slavery, could occur in our own backyard in the 21st century, but it does. what makes this marion case even more alarming is that a u.s. government agency was actually responsible for delivering some of the victims into the hands of the abusers. sen. mccaskill: when a child is admitted into our country, the united states of america should be an example to the world about how we care for those children! sharyl: hhs assistant secretary mark greenberg admitted the agency has no idea how many children it's placed with convicted felons. but he promised that gaps are being fixed. assistant sec. greenberg: child safety is a priority for us. we are committed to making, continuing to make revisions to

learn all that we can from this and our ongoing experiences in operating the program. sharyl: concern is heightened with the current surge in unaccompanied minors. in one region, the numbers are up more than 500% over the same period a year ago. in just five months, from october through february, nearly 3,000 came into the tucson, arizona border sector. almost 14,000 more in rio grande, texas. sen. grassley: and the government creates the problem by inviting these people in, or at least not doing anything to keep 'em out, and then they come here, and there's so many of them that the government can't house 'em, so they want to get 'em out of sight, out of mind as fast as they can, so just get 'em some place. sharyl: congressman cuellar says the true number of illegal juveniles coming to the u.s. without parents is even bigger than we've counted. that's because some human traffickers arrange for people to fake the role of parent and sneak children in.

admitted she paid smugglers $13,000, flew to mexico city where she was "paired" with a child, and they crossed illegally into the u.s. with her pretending to be the mother. today, the whereabouts of the child is unknown. hhs' greenberg says the government is doing everything it can to ensure the kids are safe. assistant sec. greenberg: most children are placed with a parent. we only turn to family friends if there is no suitable parent or relative and, in all cases, when we make placements, we seek to balance the importance of timely release with safeguards, which are designed to maximize safety. sharyl: at a hearing, hhs assured congress that it's shoring up the gaps and fixing its problems. have you been satisfied with the answers the government has provided to date? sen. grassley: absolutely not. if they aren't gonna do background investigations, and we don't have any indication they are, they aren't doing their job. sharyl: paul beeson is a top customs and border protection official in arizona.

he says agents are prepared for the latest onslaught. mr. beeson: i think we're better positioned to handle the phenomenon now to where we're not going to be overwhelmed by it. but it is something that continues to occur. rep. cuellar: once they come in, i think we have an obligation as a country to make sure that those juveniles don't go from a very difficult situation into the hands of somebody that can take advantage of them. and i think we need to do a better job at making sure that we ensure the safety of those kids. sharyl: to help make that happen, cuellar says he plans to push for legislation in the coming months. the hhs agency responsible for the kids, the office of refugee resettlement, spent $948 million tax dollars in 2015. it will spend another $948 million this year serving the illegal children. ahead on "full measure" -- when a controversial film is pulled from a prestigious festival some claim censorship.

about who controls what you see, or don't see, in theatres.

sharyl: the sudden withdrawal of a film from the prestigious tribeca film festival in new york touched off debate over a hot topic -- the increasing effort to control what the public sees. is it censorship? and who gets to decide?

sparked the controversy is "vaxxed." >> oh my god, i cannot believe we did what we did. but we did. sharyl: it's the story of a cdc scientist who says he and senior colleagues hid links between autism and mmr vaccine for measles, mumps and rubella, particularly in african-american boys. sheila: so i call the clinic and i said i think my child's had adverse reaction to those shots yesterday and she said, "no, no, no, no, i'm waiting for a representative from merck. i don't think it was a reaction to that." sharyl: the accused cdc officials deny wrongdoing -- and powerful interests have led a fierce campaign to stop the film. last month, under pressure, tribeca film festival co-founder robert de niro withdrew plans to show it.

mr. de niro: i think the movie is something that people should see. there was a backlash that i will fully explore and i didn't want it affecting the festival in ways that i couldn't see. sharyl: del bigtree produced "vaxxed." del: what the people have just seen with "vaxxed" being pulled from tribeca is censorship. it's the power of corporations over media. sharyl: the whole episode has ignited a larger debate over control of ideas in the media. american university professor patricia aufderheide teaches about documentaries and says some ideas should be suppressed. she defends the decision to stop "vaxxed" in part because she claims it's scientifically inaccurate - though it should be pointed out she hasn't seen it. mr. de niro: i think the movie is something that people should see. who gets to decide what's accurate and what should be shown? prof. aufderheide: so is this the "i'm not a scientist" argument? sharyl: i'm just asking the question. prof. aufderheide: the answer is that we, we expect to learn something from the considered process of science, and, at some point, we believe that we actually know things. we believe, based on science, that climate change is real and

every time that we think about it. sharyl: well, people don't agree on that point, but -- prof. aufderheide: they don't agree because they don't accept that science is a process of learning things. libby: that doesn't make any sense to me whatsoever. that's a very closed and narrow way of thinking about things. sharyl: libby handros is among the award-winning filmmakers who complain that special interests, corporations, and sponsors too often find ways to block their work. that includes some of her own films -- this one 25-years ago about donald trump. >> nothing marked the end of the 1980's, the decade of greed, more than the downfall of donald trump. ♪ sharyl: and more recently, her documentary about wind power. >> why not put it there? clearly, it was underestimated. libby: it's not as free and open as we'd like to think it is. sharyl: "vaxxed" is not the first to face obstacles in trying to get distributed.

libby: no, it's not and they won't be the last one, unfortunately. prof. miller: i mean, when works get killed, people find reasons to justify the murder. they do. sharyl: mark crispin miller is a professor of media studies at new york university. prof. miller: this is what makes this kind of in explicit censorship so effective. it isn't like the state, you know, tromping in and saying "you can't do this," not the chinese way, you know. it's the american way and it leaves no fingerprints, you see, so people don't even know that stuff has been censored and that's actually the most, worst, kind of censorship. -- the most worrisome kind of censorship. sharyl: do you consider it censorship if a film festival decides not to run a film? prof. aufderheide: do you consider it censorship if you decide to pick up a topic rather than another one for your tv show? sharyl: philip nelson is director of the manhattan film festival, which picked up "vaxxed" after it was dropped by tribeca. what's your view of what should

festival? philip: well, i don't think a film festival should be the mainstream media. i think an independent film festival should be something that gives filmmakers an opportunity to express their views and thoughts without worrying about what, what sponsors, or what certain groups think. del: we're worried every time we get into a festival, every time we get into a theater, that it will buckle under the pressure. i think most of this is just sort of hired bloggers that try to scare a theater. they'll say that there's going to be picketing, there's going to be violence. none of it happens. i mean, if you look around here, there's no picketers. everybody's totally peaceful. so i think it's mostly imaginary. sharyl: a lot of them think this is the very place where alternate viewpoints, and maybe minority viewpoints, should be heard. prof. aufderheide: i'm all for a range of viewpoints, that's terrific. i'm not for deliberate misinformation on something that is a settled issue. sharyl: "vaxxed" has been cancelled, under pressure, from additional venues, but also picked up by theatres in at least do

still ahead, a fascinating investigation into one of america's most famous photographs. for 70 years, his father was said to be one of the soldiers seen in the flag-raising photo on iwo jima. it turns out he might not have been in that picture at all. we'll talk to the son about the unfolding mystery.

sharyl: in february 1945, u.s. marines landed on the japanese island of iwo jima. it was the beginning of five weeks some of the fiercest and most deadly fighting in the pacific during world war ii. days into the battle, ap photographer joe rosenthal took a series of photographs on the top of mount suribachi -- after the capture of that key point of the island. one pulitzer prize-winning image made six men, five marines and navy corpsmen john bradley, national heroes. now there are questions about both the photo and the historical account. scott

james bradley: all my life we, we were told that my father was in the middle of the most reproduced photo in the history of photography. the key was he wouldn't talk about it. he told my mom about seven minutes of information on their first date. never again in a 47-year marriage did he say the words iwo jima. the photo wasn't part of his life, wasn't part of our life. scott: it wasn't until after his father died that james bradley even read a book about iwo jima. and then he wrote his own, the best-seller "flags of our fathers." the book became a movie. james: horrible, blood battles, and it was just yard-by-yard fighting. scott: john bradley, a navy corpsman, was awarded the navy cross for his heroism on iwo jima. james: he saved a marine's live, ran through 35 yards of merciless japanese gunfire, his citation said. and dragged a guy back with the japa

scott: after five days of brutal combat the marines took mt. suribachi. james: they got to the base of the mountain the morning of february 23rd. they uh, uh a 40-man patrol went up first. they put up a flag, that was the first flag raising on iwo jima. scott: that flag-raising was captured by a marine photographer. then came a call for a second flag. james: the colonel down below said, "hey, i want that as a souvenir, get me another flag, make it bigger." and then they put up the second flag on iwo jima. scott: ap photographer joe rosenthal had summited the mountain just in time. james: he swung his camera, he got an accidental shot. that shot americans fell in love with, and that second shot has overshadowed the first flag raising. look at the photo. it's a beautiful photo. it hit the front page of "the new yorkimes," all of our newspapers. scott: ihi

week. this time with news that the marines had opened an investigation into whether john bradley was in that famous photo after all. james: my father's injured in a hospital bed in hawaii two months after the battle, and the marines come to him and say, see this picture? he says, yeah, nice picture. where's that from? they could have said it from australia or sicily or whatever. they said, that's from iwo jima, that's you. he goes, oh, well, i raised a flag, i guess that's me. so, of course, he believed he was in that flag raising photo. scott: in 2002, long after john bradley had died, the marines released never-before-seen photos of that first flag raising ceremony from a new angle. james: well, you not only can see my dad, you can see his whole body -- shoes to the head. and uh, so we realized, wow, my dad raised the first flag on iwo jima. scott: bradley updated his book, believing that his dad had participated in both flag raisings. but, now, bradley has accepted

have recently pointed out -- that his father wasn't in the most famous photograph of world war ii. james: they started comparing what my dad was wearing on the first flag raising, which is definitely john bradley, to the figure that's supposed to be john bradley in the second flag raising, and it didn't match up. scott: a revelation that must still be difficult to process. james: there's a monument, they spent millions of dollars building a monument that says "john bradley." since i was three years old, you know, i mean, he was in a movie with john wayne, he's been in the photo his whole life, so we're talking about a small technicality. if you open up the photo, my dad is right there. he's right next to these guys. they're all dealing with each other. so my father was up there. he won the navy cross. he saved guys lives, he's a hero of iwo jima, so not much has

changed, but a small technicality has changed. scott: there is one fact that we know about the six men in the photograph. three of the marines were killed in action in the following days. the marine corps war memorial is modelled after the photograph. it has no names, but honors all marines killed in duty since the corps was founded in 1775. sharyl: so, if not bradley, who is it? scott: historians believe it is franklin sousley, who they were originally believed he was in the back of the pack. sharyl: all right. scott, thanks. we will be back

sharyl: this week's "follow the money" offers a check-up on the affordable care act and the diagnosis isn't good. health insurer humana is reportedly considering pulling out of obamacare exchanges in some states in 2017. humana currently offers plans in 15 states. in april, the nation's largest insurance company, unitedhealth group, announced its plans to exit obamacare exchanges in all but a handful of states next year due in part to financial loss. and a huge irs mistake resulted in a little $8 million bonus for some obamacare customers in 2015 courtesy of your tax dollars. thousands of others were cheated. how did it happen? it seems the irs sent some 800,000 obamacare customers the wrong obamacare tax forms.

an audit shows almost 71,000 of them benefitted by paying $8 million less than they should have. 70,000 paid more than they were supposed to. the irs says it's not going to try to go back and collect from those who fell short. that means they can thank other taxpayers who will make up the difference. on the next "full measure" -- russia is being accused of close calls that could trigger a full military response from the u.s. there seems to be a thin balance between a cold war and the beginning of a hot war on the border with russia. and we'll take you on a fascinating tour of a morgue in arizona, where the medical examiner has the grim job of identifying belongings and remains of illegal immigrants to try to piece together their identities and stories no one else is left to tell. that's next week on "full measure." that's all for this week. thanks for watching. i'm sharyl attkisson. until next time, we'll be searching for more stories that hold powers accountable.

>> morris: this week on "government matters." the private sector is not happy at all with the plan. the private sector has always viewed the centerpiece of this organization as a competitor. >> morris: the technology transformation service is designed to improve cross agency collaboration. but the private sector and federal watchdogs have concerns. vulnerabilities and exploit coyed has been around for a long time. it's just that the value associated with that code is now increasing. >> morris: the fbi paid grey hat hackers more than $1 million for a software vulnerability to the iphone. we talk zero day regulation. it's a data format that brings all that information. financial, awards, payments, everything together as one data set. >> morris: two years after president obama signed the bill into law,